


Return to Port

by Shotzette



Category: Laverne & Shirley (TV)
Genre: Bad Parenting, Estrangement, Gen, Loss of Parent(s), Parent Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 12:47:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29118495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shotzette/pseuds/Shotzette
Summary: This takes place five months after "Setting Sail".
Comments: 5
Kudos: 4





	Return to Port

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place five months after "Setting Sail".

Laverne squirmed on the cheap vinyl seat in the waiting room and was rewarded by an abrasive sound that caused the receptionist to glare at her over her rhinestone decorated glasses. “It was the seat,” Laverne said quietly.

The receptionist shrugged, mildly sneered again at Laverne’s short skirt before going back to reading her copy of True Confessions. Good luck with that, honey, Laverne thought. That Lumberjack camp story that was featured on the cover wasn’t nearly as hot as the ones they used to publish.

She glanced down at the small, but sparkly engagement and wedding ring set on her left hand. Then again, she thought, real life had turned out to be even spicier.

For the fourth time in the last half hour, she considered walking out of the lawyer’s office. She’d been waiting for over twenty minutes, and she’d even arrived ten minutes early. The waiting, the lawyer’s reluctance to go into any details over the phone, plus the jet lag and heavy traffic from Chicago earlier that morning had threatened to give her a huge case of the monkey nerves.

If she had flown over two thousand miles to get stuck with a bill, or to find out some other awful thing, she was going to scream… Out of habit, she looked at the door. Nope, she’d left Squiggy back in California. No shadows from her past were going to…

“Hello!” 

Laverne’s jaw threatened to hit the ground. “Carmine!” She smiled for the first time all morning and ran into his open arms. His muscular arms surrounded her warmly and the smell of Aqua Velva nearly made her eyes water. It was the first time she felt like she was home all morning. The embrace ended and she quickly gave him the once over. His hair was a little longer than it had been during his short year in California and he sported a pair of sideburns that would have made Elvis envious. 

“Lookin’ good, Ragusa!”

“Back at ya, DeFaz—crap. What’s Mike’s last name again?”

“*Our* last name is Bailey. He’s in Chicago at his sister’s house with Billy. We’re going to be here all weekend, if you’d like to meet us for dinner somewhere...”

Carmine’s smile fell a notch. “I’d like that, Laverne. I hope you’ll still feel that way aft—"

“Hello!” A slight, balding man said in a nasal tone behind Laverne. “If you’d accompany me into my office, I’d like to get started,” he said as he glanced at his watch.

“Now you want to get started? I’ve been waiting for nearly an hour and my heiney nearly fell asleep…”

“Mr. Ragusa, Miss DeFazio…” he began.

“Bailey.”

The attorney looked at her with confusion written all over his face. “My name’s Stanley.”

Laverne rolled her eyes. “No, my name is Bailey. It’s Laverne Bailey now. Missus.”

“Oh. Your father just had you listed as DeFazio. I guess congratulations are in order…”

“Yeah, maybe five years ago. My Pop and I—"

“It’s a long story,” Carmine interrupted. “We know your time is," he paused and pointedly glanced around the shoddy office, “valuable.”

“Well yes. Miss, uh, Mrs. Bailey, your father asked me to redraw his will ten years ago,” the attorney said as he guided them through a doorway into a disheveled office that made the waiting room look like the lobby of the Pfister Hotel in comparison. “I advised him to think things over. I always tell my clients that their final legacy should never be anger, but…”

Laverne forced a grim smile. “My Pop tended to only see things one way.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Bailey, your late father’s intent was to cut you off completely.” He turned to Carmine, “Mr. Ragusa, Mr. DeFazio left the property at 1325 Knapp Street.”

“The Pizza Bowl,” Carmine interrupted.

“Yes, The Pizza Bowl, and the personal items in the apartment above the restaurant, to you.”

Laverne took a deep breath and let it out slowly and tried to control her anger. She was glad that she had made an appointment with Dr. Gentry later that afternoon since she was definitely going to need some couch time after this disaster of a trip. “So, you couldn’t have told me this on the phone? I had to haul my family all the way from Burbank just to be let down—not that it’s not wonderful to see you, Carmine...” she added as an afterthought.

Carmine shrugged. “No problem.”

The attorney favored her with a sour smile. “Actually, Mrs. Bailey, if that had only been the case, I would have explained that all to you on the phone. However,” he said as his hand roamed over the stack of paper on his desk, “there’s an issue with the deed to the establishment. I only recently discovered that over eighty percent of the down payment was made with funds signed over from the Pfister Life Insurance company for a life insurance policy for a Mrs. Josephine DeFazio. She was your mother, I presume?”

Laverne’s throat thickened at the mention of her mother’s name and she just nodded. 

“You were named as a co beneficiary on that policy. The funds were held in trust by your father until you reached majority—turned 21,” he clarified. “Your father could not have left the restaurant to Mr. Ragusa, because he was only the partial owner. You have been the co-owner of the restaurant for several...”

“Hey!”

“A few,” he hastily corrected, “a few years now.”

Laverne looked back and forth at the two men. “I don’t want it.”

“Wait, what?”

“Nope,” she said as she shook her head, “Carmine, you were the son he never had and always wanted. You stood by him for years after I left Milwaukee. You earned it.”

“Uh, haven’t you been listening? “Carmine asked.

“I’m sitting right here, here aren’t I?”

“Laverne, your mother wanted you to be taken care of. She put you on the policy for a reason. Maybe…” Carmine paused and seemed to choose his words carefully, “maybe she knew that your Pop was not the guy who should hold all of the cards. I mean, I really don’t remember her at all, but I think she was trying to protect you. Maybe from your Pop? Are you okay?”

Laverne took a few more deep breaths before she replied. “Yes. No. I’m not sure. This is a lot to take in. Honestly, Carmine,” she confided, “I never thought I’d ever come back here.”

“I know. “

She blinked at his abrupt change of tone. “What?”

“Your Pop wasn’t the only person in this town, you know. A lot of us have missed you,” he said, bitterly.

“You left California,” she countered.

“Yeah, I was so successful there…”

Laverne looked at him in askance. “Well, you should just let me sign over the Pizza Bowl to you. Maybe you could sell it and make a buck and get a start...”

“I don’t need a start Laverne,” Carmine said as he shook his head, “I’m doing okay.”

“Well, I know that you left Califor--“

“I left because I didn’t have the talent to make it there,” he replied flatly. “I’m a very good dancer and a terrific singer. So was every other guy I competed against for parts. That’s where the super talented people go, Hollywood or New York. I’m just Milwaukee talented, and that’s okay.”

“You people know I get paid by the half hour, right?” the attorney asked.

“Stick a sock in it, Stanley. I’m paying for the hour.”

“Carmine, I can’t let you do that. I mean…” Laverne began.

“I insist. You have been gone for a long time. Laverne, what do you think I’m doing these days?”

She gave him a quick once over. He had taken off his leather coat when they entered the office revealing a stylish leisure suit. His shoes looked newish, and looked like real Florsheims, not knock offs.

A chill ran down Laverne’s spine. “Please tell me that you haven’t gone back to work for Louie the—"

Carmine flashed a lot of teeth without even coming close to a real smile. “Nope! No, not at all. That is not a name you heard,” he said as he looked meaningfully at the now trembling attorney. “I bought the dance studio back.”

“I’m so happy for you! You can still dance and get paid for it.”

“Well, I don’t have that much time for dancing anymore. You are looking at a legitimate businessman.” When Al decided to retire to Florida, he sold us his share of Arnolds.”

“Us?”

Carmine grinned as he took off his left glove, revealing a thick, gold band.

Laverne’s lower jaw threatened to collide with her lap. “You’re married?”

“Of course! Seriously, do I strike you as a guy who wears jewelry? Lucille and I made it official last year.”

“Lucille Lockwash?”

“You mean Lucille Ragusa. We got back together after I came back to town.”

“You’ve been back for over five years and you only married her last year?”

Carmine shrugged. “It was a little complicated... We only got really serious after I moved back. She heard it through the grapevine that I was coming home and met me at the bus station—with a bottle of champagne and a big sign saying, “I love you!”. She said that she never really knew how much I meant to her until I left. I mean, we took it pretty slow for a while. I needed to make something out of myself before I could take the next step.”

“Carmine, when a woman shows up with a huge sign proclaiming her love for you, it’s pretty clear that she thinks that you’re good enough.”

“I didn’t have to prove it to her, I had to prove myself to me. You can’t ask a woman to give up more in alimony than I’ve ever made in a year to give it all up for someone with no future.”

“Lucille gave up her alimony for you?”

“Yeah, that’s how it works when you remarry.”

“Good to know. So, Lucille was happy to marry you when you became a success?”

“No,” he said as he shook his head, “she wanted to marry me when I was a nobody with no future. I had to become a success for me. In fact, she’s the reason I am a success. Do you know what her ex-husband did for a living?”

“I never thought about it.” The Lucille she remembered came and went in quick flashes, accompanied by a tug on Carmine’s arm and the waft of an expensive smelling perfume.

“He was in commercial real estate,” Carmine explained. “Lucille learned a lot from him about investing, and profit margins and stuff like that. We’ve been able to make some good investments and we’re doing okay. Guess who owns half of Bronco’s garage?”

“Fonzie?”

“The other half,” he said, rolling his eyes. “We also own Moby Dominick’s—which has been renamed “Interludes” and is one of Milwaukee’s most up and coming single’s bars. Do you remember that weird coffee shop where Shirley had her beatnik moment?”

Laverne winced and wished she could forget that memory. “The Buttered Cocoon?”

“That’s the one! They are not doing too well right now, and the owner is taking offers. We’re lowballing him and are planning to turn it into a restaurant/live music venue.”

“Wow.” Laverne looked at her old friend with new eyes and respect.

“Yeah.”

“So you could actually do something with the Pizza Bowl? Make profitable again?”

“Lucille and I could,” he replied with a nod. “Things haven’t been going too well here the last few years.”

“I’ve read the papers.” She didn’t add that a few of the headlines had brought her to tears. Rampant unemployment, civil unrest, and the bussing issues in her hometown made her value her life in California even more.

“The Pizza Bowl will need a lot of work. Frank didn’t take very good care of the place for the last several years, and it’s been boarded up since he died.”

A wave of guilt passed over her. “Tony and Mary! I didn’t even think of them.”

Carmine smiled. “Mary left a few years ago. She went to night school and became a physician’s assistant.”

“Better her than me.”

“Tony stayed with your Pop until the end, but he’s planning on moving to Florida, unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Unless he gets a great offer to stay on from the new owner.”

Laverne shook her head. “Carmine, that should be you. I mean, you know what you’re doing, and…”

“And so do you! Laverne, you’ve been doing great in California. Edna told me that after she and Lou retired, Cowboy Bill’s Inc. made you district manager for most of Southern California. You know how to run a successful restaurant.”

“So do you.”

“Yeah, I do,” he replied with a nod. “I have a proposal.”

She batted her eyelashes at him playfully, “I’m flattered, but I could never come between you and Lucille.”

“Ha-ha. I’m serious. We co-own and co-manage the Pizza Bowl.”

“Get outta here! You’re kidding.”

“Nope.”

“Carmine, I can’t stay here! I have a life in California.”

“I know that. I would be the hands-on person, do the day-to-day management. We could also hire a second cook and let Tony gradually take over some of the management duties.”

“Why do you want to include me at all? I mean, my Pop left you the Pizza Bowl, and I don’t have a problem signing it over to you.”

“Well, your mother left part of it to you, and I wouldn’t feel right about doing it without you. She wanted to be your legacy”

“That’s a lot to consider…”

“You don’t have to decide today. I want you to think it over. It’s… I think it was meant to be.”

“What makes you so sure of that?”

“You read the papers. Budweiser bought out Shotz and then closed down half of the brewery. Bam! Over three hundred people were without jobs the next day. The ripple effect through the downtown economy has been devastating.”

“You use a lot of big words now, dontcha?”

“The Pizza Bowl has always done well when money is tight. The businesses that are taking the hardest hits are the ones that catered to rich people. Pizza isn’t expensive and bowling is cheap. People can still afford to go there without busting the bank.”

“Laverne, I know your relationship with Frank didn’t end well, and, in my opinion, that was one hundred percent on him; not on you. He wasn’t a perfect father, but one good thing I can say about him is that he used to take pride in his business, and his community. He used to do a lot of charity work with the other business owners in the area. Hell, the Pizza Bowl was practically a community center. A lot of that neighborhood feeling has gone away, but I think we can bring it back.”

“That sounds like a job for you and Lucille, not me,” Laverne replied as she shook her head.

“We need your expertise. You understand national trends; what works and what doesn’t work. With you onboard, Lucille and I wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel at every turn.”

“Carmine, this sounds pretty good, but I don’t know if I’m up to it. I mean, I have a full-time job and a kid.”

“Which means you’re used to juggling things. Seriously, I can manage the day to day, but we split the big decisions fifty-fifty. We can even keep it down to one long phone call a week. Which, even if you decide not to do this, I don’t want us to lose touch again. Good people don’t fall out of trees. Unless they’re Lenny, of course…” he added.

“Of course. Okay, I’ll think about it.”

“That’s all I can ask.”

“Great! In the meantime, I believe I mentioned dinner earlier. What’s say that I call Mike and have him come up from Chicago? We could even leave Billy with Mike’s sister and her two kids overnight and get a hotel room.”

“That sounds like the Laverne I remember—ouch! Seriously, I’d like to meet Mike.”

“Good. Call Lucille, because I think it’s about time that I got to know her too.”


End file.
